It is nearly 60 miles between Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth and the pediatric health system’s new Prosper campus. On a day with zero traffic, it would take an hour to get from the communities surrounding the Prosper hospital to the system’s mothership. Traffic may double that travel time. But as the facility on the region’s quickly growing northern edge expands, more patients are getting all the care they need in Prosper.
D CEO Healthcare toured the new hospital with Kevin Greene, who runs the Prosper campus in his role as Vice President with Cook Children’s. The 220,000 square foot, six-story facility is only the second new facility built in the system’s 105-year history (it will turn 106 next month). It was built with growth in mind, and after 1.5 years in operation, it is expanding to build out the fourth floor, which was initially shell space, with 24 extra beds. The third floor remains a shell for future expansion.
The campus employs around 400 people and includes a pharmacy, medical office building, urgent care clinic, and a surgery center that saw 4,000 children last year. The acute care hospital includes 14 different specialties and 26 specialists, and the system’s network consists of 43 pediatricians in the region. The campus cared for around 100,000 children last year.
The Prosper campus is already growing from 24 beds when it opened to 58 when the fourth-floor construction ends. By 2026, Greene says the hospital will likely be fully built out, but the system has an eye on even more growth. The main Fort Worth Cook Children’s hospital has 430 beds on 30 acres tucked into Fort Worth’s medical district, but the Prosper campus sits on 35 acres.
A retail pharmacy, gift shop, outpatient lab, an expanded emergency department, and intensive care unit mean that many nearby patients can get everything they need without traveling far. The facility is also thinking about a trauma designation, and Greene hopes to begin the conversation by the end of the year. The hospital has added three operating rooms and can expand the intensive care unit to 24 beds as well. “It is a one-stop shop to have it all there,” Greene says. “We want to eliminate the delay and get kids all the care they need.”
The benefit of being a new facility is that it has all of the latest in-room technology. Rather than whiteboards listing the names of the care team that are often not updated, the rooms are equipped with screens connected to the electronic health record that automatically updates who is caring for the child. The screens also update the patient’s dietary needs for the nutrition team.
Many of the rooms are equipped with Netflix and Disney Plus as well as a camera that can zoom in on the patient for remote appointments with a specialist who might not be in Prosper. This means families can catch up with their neurosurgeon or other specialist who may be based in Fort Worth without having to travel.
Though not unsurprising in a pediatric facility, the playful design of the hospital catches the eye. A massive screen depicting an outdoor scene welcomes guests into the main lobby and changes with the time of day. On the roof is the “Sistine Chapel of cows,” where bovines float through a sky that turns into stars at night. The floor is marked with colorful shapes and accompanying light colors to help patients and families navigate the hospital. The Cook Children’s mascot Peaks the dragon can be found hidden in different murals throughout the hospital, engaging patients with a visual Easter egg hunt.
For Greene, his leadership role at Cook Children’s is a full-circle moment. The Fort Worth native and father of two was once a patient at the health system and was a college intern with Cook Children’s. He is embracing his leadership role in the community, as evidenced by his family’s move to Prosper and his role as the president of the Prosper Chamber of Commerce.
The first six months of operations were somewhat slow as the public and provider community became aware of the hospital and the care it provided, but business has been booming recently. With more than one million children in the region, Greene says the hospital will be ready to serve the growing community, however, it looks. “In five years, things may look completely different, but we are confident that the need will be here for all of our pediatric beds in the market,” he says.
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